


More Than One Heart

by BitterSweetness



Category: Supernatural
Genre: Alternate Universe, Jane - Freeform, Lots of OCs - Freeform, Minor Character Death, Multi, Nephilins
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-11-06
Updated: 2014-11-08
Packaged: 2018-02-24 07:05:13
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 2
Words: 5,016
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2572529
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BitterSweetness/pseuds/BitterSweetness
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Post season 9 AU <br/>Jane, the half angel was not the only one after all. She belonged to a peaceful community who's threatening to become not so peaceful after the brutal murder of an innocent member. Their leaders try to keep peace, but Castiel is still hunted to respond for his crimes. <br/>Can he try to make amends, or is it better to run?</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Collision

Lana had slumped down in her bed, ready to fall asleep without even changing from her work uniform, when she got the phone call saying one of her sisters was dead.

That was exactly how Logan started the conversation. She was expecting to pick up the phone to be annoyed with one of her brothers, because they always had the timing to call her complaining about something trivial just as she was about to get some much needed rest.

At worst, she thought she would be called in to mediate some kind of idiotic fight between Damien and Peter, who had been all over each other's throats for some time, for seemingly no other reason other than to maker her life more difficult.

Instead the words her brother Logan chose to greet her with were: “Lana... One of our sisters is dead.”

He was always like that, brutally straightforward, and she always had the fortune of having him to deliver the worst news.

She believed he thought he was doing something like ripping off a band-aid, trying to make it quick and smooth, all in one motion. She supposed he saw no point in parceling her pain of having to listen to it, or his for having to be the one to say it.

Even being aware of that, she didn't feel like she had a band-aid taken off. She felt like he had broken one of her bones without bothering to give her a warning first. She knew he meant well, but the pain was sudden and paralyzing. All she could do was being quietly amazed with how quickly her life had gone to shit. One second she was about to fall asleep thinking about that annoying customer that made her close the store half an hour after the usual closing time and then one of her sisters was dead. And what made it so much worse was that she couldn't even have the temporary luxury of denial, couldn't even ask if he was sure. It would be ridiculous, Logan wouldn't call her unless he was absolutely positive it was true. She wanted to ask anyway.

She couldn't answer him right away, the air had disappeared of her lungs and she was struggling to find it. She was afraid she was going to start to hyperventilate.

Logan was at kind enough to give her a few seconds to collect herself.

She desperately needed those seconds, because after, he was going to tell her which one of her sisters was gone forever, and trough the stars she was starting to see from the lack of air, she saw Cat's face.

'Please', she thought, 'please don't be her'.' And if it his (please don't let it be), please Logan, just give me a few more moments, just a few more seconds of her being alive (please let her be alive) to me, please just wait, please'.

She begged him without words, and still hoped he would find a way to hear it.

Those merciful seconds passed and she still couldn't feel the courage to ask, so he had to tell her without being asked. If she wasn't fighting so hard not to faint, she would have felt bad for forcing him to talk while she was curled up in her own pain, but in that moment he was stronger than her.

“It was Jane.” He said, hurrying to say the words, trying to spit them out as if they were venom.

They did feel like venom when they stabbed her, but trough the fresh pain, she felt a relief so great it almost made her sick. Jane was gone. Their sweet, peaceful, Jane. Jane, who never once thought about hurting anybody. It was devastating, and tragic, but Lana couldn't help it; she was glad Cat was still with them. She was happy she was still with her. She was disgusted with herself; she knew how horribly selfish it was; she knew how Cat would be so horribly disappointed and repulsed if she ever found out those thoughts had ever crossed her mind, but there was nothing she could do. There were still stars in the sky, she thought, still supified by the news, even if her world was now darker.

She took a deep breath that somehow came out as a sob.

She still didn't speak, letting herself be overwhelmed by the turmoil of emotion thrashing inside her. She used that moment to let herself feel devastated for her lost sister, to feel furious and scared and confused. For that moment she let herself feel, because she knew that as soon as she opened her mouth to respond to her brother, she was stepping up as a commander, and that meant she was going to have to keep those emotions hidden for a long time, until she could deal with them properly.

Logan's steady breathing on her ear reminded her he was still waiting for her and that she still hadn't said a word since she had picked up the phone. She brought her hand to her face, feeling surprised when she felt tears there. She tried to remember the point when she had started to cry. She wondered if she even had the right to, being so selfishly happy one of her sisters was still with her while another one was gone.

She ignored the guilt that was threatening to swallow her whole, pushed it into a hidden corner of her mind, and promised to deal with it later. Her brothers and sisters needed her, so she wiped the tears from her face, and gathered the strength she needed to speak.

“Who else knows about this?” She asked, feeling a detached sense of pride that she managed to make her voice come out strong. Like a commander's voice... like Logan's voice.  
“We are the only ones.” He answered, and maybe the trace of relief she heard in his voice had been in her imagination. Had he been afraid it had been to much for her? She completely understood if he had.

She was at least grateful so far they were they only ones to know so far, although not particularly suspired. Logan had a way of knowing everything before anyone, she would have to ask about it later, she needed that.

She was glad their brothers and sisters didn't know yet, they deserved to have those few extra moments of peace, even if they wouldn't last long.

“Good.” She answered.

“We need to meet. There is a lot we have to talk about that can't be said over the phone.” He said, finishing their conversation and hanging up without a goodbye.

She couldn't blame him for it. She knew he was hurting at least as much as she was, probably more. They had both lost a sister and she could only imagine how painful it had been for him to be the one to have to tell her that; for him to be the first to know.

She felt glad she had him. She didn't know what the circumstances of her precious sister's death had been, but she knew they couldn't be anything but explosive, and now it was up to the both of them to keep the fire from spreading and consuming them all.


	2. Cabin

Exactly half an hour later she arrived at their usual meeting point.

It was a comfortable little cabin in the middle of the woods where Lana's family used to spend their summers before her father passed away. Her brother and mother had not wanted to be anywhere near it since his death, so when Lana discovered her other, larger family, and her role in it, she thought it would be the perfect place to hold their most private and sensitive meetings. She liked to think of it a common ground between her so very different families.

Logan seemed to like it too; from what she knew from him, she suspected he enjoyed the seclusion. Not even their other brothers and sisters knew about that meeting place. In a way, it was something only the two of them shared. It felt strangely intimate, considering that even though they were family they weren't really that emotionally close.

He had been the first of her new brothers she met, the one who came to her and explained everything. He was the one who finally answered the question she had been having all her life. She was different, but she didn't know how or why. She supposed that most teenagers felt different at some time of their lives, but it turns out she was right. Being the daughter of an angelic being is what most people would consider to be pretty different.

As implausible as that sounded at first, it wasn't that hard to believe him. The seeds of doubt had been there her entire life and there was the certainty there was something different about her. All he had to do was show her a little taste of what he could do, of what she would soon be able to do, and she was all in.

She embraced her new family as something she had been missing all her life, and they embraced her right back, accepting her fully and wholeheartedly.  They accepted her not only as their sister, but as their leader, which was something she was very hesitant to declare herself as. After all, the only reason for them to choose her as their leader was the fact that apparently their father was one of the most powerful angels.

She didn't like that reasoning, she thought they should function like a democracy and not a monarchy; that maybe they didn't even need a ruler, they could rule themselves. But they, especially Logan, insisted, and she couldn't refuse her new family.

Of course at first she was a leader only in name. She had to go through a rigorous process training to assure she really had what it was necessary to be their commander. The training was nowhere near over, it wasn't for as long as they lived, but had she thankfully found herself to be quite a capable leader, along Logan, and it was a fact that her powers were growing beyond the realm of her brothers and sisters'. Also, with time, she had found that her idea of not having rulers had been painfully naive. They were a family, and like any family, they had their fair share of conflict, and their especially difficult members. They needed someone to give them order, and if that had to be her, she would accept it. As long as she saw herself fit to do so, she would be their commander. She would keep their peace.

But their peace was being threatened like it had never been before; like she hoped it would never be. One of their sisters was dead, and that wasn't only tragic, it was catastrophic.

They couldn't simply grieve for her and try to move on, because she, just like all of them, was a nephilin (a word Lana personally despised, but technically the right term), and nephilins don't die easily, as she had personally discovered, through some incidents that still made her shiver to think about. It could only have been an angel.

She was relatively new to the family, but some of her brothers and sisters had been afraid of them for most of their lives. They knew that if the angels found out about their existence, they would be exterminated. She had done her share of studying on the subject of angels, and from the sparse viable sources she gathered, they weren't very lenient with what they considered to be abominations, even if they had been the ones to create them. Not that she believed their angel fathers knew they existed; angels could be quite good at ignoring everything not happening in their heavenly realm, including the women they had slept with and presumably immediately forgotten about. She would never know why creatures like that even bothered with human women, and she hoped she would never get the chance to ask one of them.

But their anonymity had clearly been threatened, because only an angel could kill a nephilin...

Well, there were nephilins themselves, but that idea was ridiculous. They were family, they wouldn't destroy each other. Unless... They did have hot-tempered members. She should discuss that with Logan, just to completely rule that option out. It hurt to think of that, but part of being a leader was dealing with the painful, and she had to consider every single option.

She sighed, feeling a headache coming, she was still tired from work and numb from the news of her sister. She supposed that was her human side expressing itself. She was glad for it, it was her human side what let her draw some comfort from the familiar smell of pine and fresh rain around her. It made her think of her family, her human family. Thinking about them made her eyes start to water again. She loved her new family, but she missed her old one. Since discovering what she really was she had distanced herself from them. She kept contact, but it was getting thinner with time. It hurt her, and she knew it hurt them too, but at that moment she was glad she had made that decision. She wanted them to be safe, and if a war was coming, they would be their safest as far away from her as possible.

It was at that time Logan showed up, appearing in front of her as if out of nowhere. From all of them, he was the only one who could fly and it annoyed Lana to no end. She would be able to do that soon, at least that was what he kept promising her, but until then all she could do was drive everywhere while he could be anywhere in the span of half a second. He told her once his powers of flight were limited, but she hadn't been able to see those limitations yet. He was maybe lying to make her feel better, or (much more likely) was great at hiding them from her.

“Sorry I'm late.” He said, even though they hadn't set up a time to be there. She believed that in his mind if he wasn't the first to get where he had to be he was late. Most times she would lightly tease him for it, but it wasn't the time.

She felt the inexplicable urge to hug him, so strong she could barely hold herself. It would be inappropriate, or at last he would consider it to be, but she needed a brother's hug, and he was after all her brother. She reminded herself she had to be a commander, she had to let her angelic side take over, shut off her feeling for the time being.

So instead of hugging her brother, she greeted her mentor, and nodded curtly when he suggested they should get inside.

Lana felt a shiver run down her spine the moment she stepped in the cabin. The realization hit her that what they discussed in that cabin was going to change their lives. Whatever they decided could either help keep peace or cause a bloody war. It was entirely in their power, and the perception of that power settled in her chest, making her feel suffocated, like she had felt at the very beginning. She wondered how he was handling it. He probably wouldn't tell her if she asked, she thought.

He noticed her shiver and waved absentmindedly at the fireplace, creating a small flame Lana watched grow into a steady and beautiful fire. It gave life back to the lonely cabin and the warmth evolved her body, making her feel slightly better.

“Would you like something to drink?” He asked, taking her by complete surprise, while walking to her parents' worn down liquor cabinet and pulling out a dusty bottle of whisky. It was so unlike him she was almost afraid the person in front of her was an impostor.

“I... didn't know you drink.” She said. It was such a normal and human thing to do; she would have never imagined him doing it. Of all her brothers she thought of him as the one who had the most angelic in him, at least from what she knew of angels. Some of their brothers resented him for that, but it was something she actually admired. He was the oldest, the most powerful one (even more than her), and he was always in control, he was always in charge.

Seeing him pouring a drink into an old faded glass and letting himself sink into one of the worn leather chairs by the fireplace her mother despised so much made him seen more human than she had ever seen him. It reminded her that even though he always looked so collected he had just as much of human in him as she had.

“I don't usually, no. But today sure seemed like the perfect time to start.” He smiled tiredly at her. “So, Lana, sister, would you like to share a drink with me?” She looked into his brown eyes and saw her own exhaustion reflected on them.

Suddenly it seemed liked the perfect time for a drink.

“A drink sounds great right now, thank you.” She answered, following his example and sinking in the chair opposite his, feeling the pleasant heat from the fireplace caressing her face.

He poured her her drink and handed it to her making eye contact while he gave her the glass. He always looked at her so intently; it was like he was permanently evaluating her. She supposed he was. He was her mentor, the one who taught her how to be a leader, how to use her powers. He always seemed so sure her place was as a leader with him, but she wondered if in his own private thoughts he really found her capable or if he just accepted her because it was what all their brothers expected him to do. Maybe he was tired of doing it alone and figured having her would be better than nothing. It didn't matter anymore. She was there, and how she handled what was about to happen would truly dictate if she was capable or not. She hoped she was, but to be honest with herself, she wasn't sure.

Before she raised her drink to her lips, he held out his cup for a toast.

“To Jane.” He toasted, sighing while they clicked glasses. He downed his drink in one taking. It would have been irresponsible to be drinking strong liquor in such a delicate time, but she was reasonably sure alcohol didn't have nearly as much impact on them as it had with regular people.

“To Jane.” She responded, barely holding her voice above a whisper and took a sip of her drink, trying hard not to make a face at the strong taste of the aged whiskey. But she enjoyed the warmth that went through her, so she took another sip.

They stood in silence of a while. She was waiting for him to start the conversation, like he always did, but he seemed as shook as she was. It scared her; he was supposed to be the one who always seemed to know what to do.

“I'm sorry Lana.” He said, and if she expected any words to be said by him those weren't it.

“I'm sorry.” He repeated, but hearing it twice didn't make her understand it more.

“What are you sorry about?” She asked, seeing him run him hand trough his unusually disheveled dark hair. He looked guilty... why?

“Lana I brought you into this.” He said, looking remorsefully at her. “You were so young, still a kid. I should have left you to be with your family.”

“You are my family!” She exclaimed. Was he saying bringing her into the family had been a mistake?

“We are.” He smiled sadly at her. “But I still should have let you have those years, the ones you had left to have fun and be free. But I couldn't. I was selfish, and I'd been looking for you for so long, looking for someone who could make a difference. I knew you were the one and I couldn't let you go. I needed you. We needed you. I went to you knowing you couldn't say no to what I was offering you. I barely gave you the choice” He looked into her eyes and she saw guilt there.

“Logan, you gave me purpose. I know who I am. That's more important than any party I missed while I was trying to learn with you. And I know the choice I made. I don't regret it for a second.” She held his gaze so he could see how much she truly meant it. He smiled slightly at her, but his eyes were still sad.

“Why are you telling me this?” She asked.

“Because sister, I'm afraid I pulled you into this without knowing how dangerous it could be. And now I'm afraid there's no coming back.” He stated gravely and pulled an envelope from under his jacked, laying it on the coffee table between them.

“Because of what happened to Jane.” She said, reaching to grab the envelope.

“Yes.” He answered, putting his and over hers, stopping her from moving the envelope. “Lana, what's in that envelope... It's awful, and it is not going to be easy for you to see. But you should know what happened to our sister. I'll have to tell you one way or the other, but it is your choice whether you want to see it or not.”

She widened her eyes, horrified, instinctively knowing what the envelope was holding. No, she didn't want to see it! What kind of sane person would want to see...?

“I need to see it.” She had to. She was a woman now, she was half angel. She was not a squeamish and scared girl anymore. Well, maybe she was scared, but she had to know, she had to see with her own eyes.

He nodded and hesitantly removed his hands from her. She tried not to shake as she opened the envelope, being successful to only a limited degree.

There were pictures. Pictures of Jane. Lana stared at her white face and empty eyes and wondered if she was ever again going to be able to picture her sister without her chest ripped open.

“Her heart...” she choked out. “They took her heart.” The words she was saying sounded strange in her ears, like she was speaking them in a different language, the sounds didn’t make sense.

“Yes, they did.” She said, gently taking the pictures from her hands. It didn’t make a difference; the image was burned into her mind. She knew as long as she lived, she would never be able to forget those pictures.

“Why did they take her heart Logan?” She asked, afraid her voice was beginning to sound a bit hysterical. She couldn’t make sense of it, was murdering that sweet young woman not enough for them? Did they also have to mangle her like that? It was such a cruel and senseless act of violence, in an already cruel and senseless crime.

“I’m not sure.” He answered her, looking distressed. It had to be hard for him to be in the dark, someone who was used to know everything before everyone else. “But something really bad is going to come out of this.”

She didn’t need him to tell her that, but hearing those words in his voice made a wave of fear go through her body anyway.

“Maybe it’s a message for the rest of us.” She suggested, although she couldn’t guess what it was trying to convey.

“I don’t think so. I suspect they think she was one of a kind, or if they don’t they aren’t worried about the rest of us.” He said, mechanically rotating his empty glass in his hands.

“Why is that?”

“Because, if they wanted, they could kill dozens of us at a time, there would be no need for any message, they could just start the carnage. It’s why we’ve always worked so hard to make sure our existence is as secretive as possible.”

He was right, it was something they always had to worry about, and it was very hard work. Lana herself was hardly an adult when she had been pulled into this, and a lot of their brothers and sisters were teenagers. It was extremely difficult to make sure some of their more irresponsible and reckless members wouldn’t brag about having “special powers” and give them all away.

“I suppose so… So we’re sure this was the work of an angel.” She looked expectantly at him.

“Yes, we’re sure, Lana.” He calmed her unvoiced fear.

“But… if they don’t know we exist, why did they… How did they find Jane and not the rest of us? Why did they specifically kill her, and why in that way?” She asked, hoping he would magically have all the answers to the questions she couldn’t make sense of.

“I’m… not sure.” He looked apologetically at her, as if he really had the obligation to have those answers, like he was failing her for not having them. “I do have some theories, but they’re not a lot to go on right now, they’re just speculation.”

“Please, Logan, any answer is better than none.” She begged.

“Well… when I had just found out who I was, I was alone. There was no family then; that came after.” He started. She had always thought he had been the one to start the family, but she had to wonder how it had been that he had found out what he was by himself, when everyone after him (as far as she knew) had simply been told. “I didn’t know a lot about what we are, so I decided to do some research. As you know, researching this kind of thing is difficult. Researching an angel is hard, but trying to find information on something even the most mythical creatures think is a myth… I wouldn’t say it’s impossible, but it’s about as close as it can be.

It’s a nightmare to verify the sources, so you can’t really tell apart what is true from the delusions of over-religious men.

Regardless, I did manage to find some trustworthy information, and was even able to use it to learn how to control my powers and help you and others do the same.”

He explained, and although at any other time Lana would be very interested in learning about Logan’s background and what he had found, she was getting rather anxious to know what any of that had to do with Jane.

“What does any of this have to do with Jane?” She asked, unable to stop herself, and immediately blushed, realizing how rude and childish she had just appeared.

Logan didn’t call her on it, probably understanding how she was feeling.

“Well, in my research, I came across some rituals, some spells of some sort in which the heart of a nephilin was a necessary ingredient.” He grimaced when he said that word and Lana thought about her poor sister the way she’d been before; so innocent and sweet and alive. To think she was now dead so that something could use her heart for a goddamned spell. The idea was revolting beyond words.

“A… spell. A spell to accomplish what?” It better be a fucking important spell if it had justified killing her sister.

“I don’t know. The writings were too vague to make out. I honestly haven’t thought about them in a long time, it didn’t seem important.” His voice trembled a little, and she could tell he at least partially blamed himself for Jane’s death. She could tell he was thinking that if he’d given those spells some more thought he could have prevented it, made the family aware and careful.

“Logan, you had no way of knowing.” She stated, and in an impulse she moved her hand to hold his, trying to convey as much sympathy as she could into that little gesture. “No one would think some faded writings about crazy spells would be relevant. Just that you remembered reading about that, when that was so long ago, is a great help to us. We at least aren’t completely in the dark.”

“Thank you…” He said, hesitantly squeezing her hand to demonstrate his gratefulness in a way he wasn’t sure he would be completely able to with his words. “But I just keep thinking… Poor Jane. They could have found and killed anyone of us, and yet… They found her. How?”

“She was probably just… unlucky.” To think something as trivial as luck had taken her sister was horrific.

“I don’t know, could it have been just bad luck?” He asked, obviously doubtful that that had been the case. “It just seems too coincidental. Some angel (because it can’t have been anything else) needs a heart to do his spell, and just happens to find what he thinks is the only nephilin in the world to get it from? It wouldn’t happen, it's too contrived.”

“Then what do you think happened. You said that if the angels knew we existed they would have killed us all by now.”

“The angels, yes. But one angel? All it would take was just one of them who wasn’t as self-righteous as the others and needed a heart for a spell. He would take his heart and leave us alone.”

“I don’t know where you’re going with this, Logan.” She said, but she was afraid she did.

“There aren’t a lot of people who know we exist, Lana, and for one of them to find out… I hate to say this, but I think we have a mole between us.”

 

 

 

**Author's Note:**

> Supernatural characters will be introduced later on. Thank you very much for reading.


End file.
